Up the Us
Up the Us
Promoted to the football league in 1950, Colchester United have spent all but two seasons in the bottom two divisions, bouncing between the third and fourth tiers on a regular basis.
However, calamity struck in season 1989-90, when they were relegated to the Conference, where they stayed for two seasons before roaring back with a Conference and FA Trophy double, under ex-player Roy McDonough. Fifteen years of subsequent see-sawing between the bottom two tiers ended with jubilation for Us fans, as they finished second in League 1 to local rivals Southend United at the end of the 2005-6 season, to join their Essex rivals in the Championship for the first and only time. Manager Phil Parkinson thus assumed legendary status with fans but then ruined it by leaving the club for ‘bigger club’ fellow Championship side Hull City before a ball had even been kicked. Later that season, the fans would get their revenge for what they saw as betrayal, after Parkinson was sacked by Hull City, following defeat to the Us in the league.
The first season in the Championship, under Parkinson’s replacement, Geraint Williams, saw the Us attain their highest-ever season finish of 10th in the second tier. They spent a number of weeks towards the end of the season flirting with the promotion play-off places, only to miss out late on. The key to their success that season was the cramped, decaying Layer Road stadium, which ‘bigger clubs’ simply did not like visiting, and a number of scalps were claimed that season.
Some years before, to stave off financial ruin, the club had sold the ground to the council for housing, and now the council were building a new, 10,000 seater stadium next to the A12 trunk road to London, with the intention of filling it every match in the Championship. It was even constructed with the ability to fill in the corners, raising the capacity to 15,000 (although this has never happened), as fans, club and council got over-excited at the prospect of sustaining the club’s new-found tier two status.
However, before they got the chance to star in the new council-owned ground, they suffered ‘second season’ syndrome, and finished bottom of the Championship in 2007-2008.
A few years of respectable finishes in League 1 came to an end when the owner reduced his own personal funding to the first team, in the wake of new FFP rules, and, having one of the smallest attendance records in the football league, financial gravity saw the Us drop to the bottom tier.
The last three seasons have seen a constant battle against relegation from the football league, and fan resentment at the owner they claim has overseen this decline. Until recently, the owner had favoured ‘promotions from within’, from the backroom, for a succession of managers who simply did not make their mark on the team. However, with the appointment of brothers Danny and Nicky Cowley as the management team, there are hopes that a new beginning may happen.
Cowleys to the Rescue
The Essex-born Cowleys have had success elsewhere, most notably as managers of what were at the time Conference side Lincoln City, who they not only eventually led to League 1 but also famously beat then-Premier League side Burnley in the 5th round of the FA Cup as a non-league side, en route to a quarter-final defeat to the mighty Arsenal at the Emirates.
Further roles at Huddersfield and Portsmouth led finally to this new job back in Essex, where they had previously managed non-league sides Concord Rangers and Braintree Town before their Lincoln stint. The fans are hoping that the Cowleys’ far more professional approach to team management will reap dividends, take the club away from the bottom of the division and maybe even some distance back up the pyramid.
The Cowleys will need to work with a tight budget, as the owner continues to focus his spending mainly on infrastructure – coaches, etc. – and the promotion of talent from the academy. The squad does have a number of promising youngsters, notably Samson Tovide, Noah Chilvers and Bradley Ihionvien, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the academy’s currently best-known product, the Championship’s current top scorer Sammie Szmodics.
We pick up the story in July, with the Cowleys appointing a number of first team coaches and hiring new youth scouts.
